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alertness

Caller’s ability to understand “responding normally” vs. “completely alert” key question in a north American English version of an emergency medical dispatch protocol

Greg Scott, MBA, EMD-QI, Christopher Olola, PhD, Chris Davis, EMD-I, Bryon Schultz, BA, Charles Gipson, MA, Jean Early, BS, Jeff Clawson, MD

Apr 20, 2022|Research Posters

The difficulty of evaluating the mental status, particularly alertness, is more pronounced in the medical dispatch context, where the Emergency Medical Dispatcher (EMD) must work through the eyes and ears of the caller, who is most likely a layperson. Determining true non-alertness and the level of its effects on outcome needs to be solved to perfect the interrogation and response-coding processes at dispatch.

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